The official blog of center fielder Marlon Byrd

7/10 Fire & family

You have a guy like Ryan Dempster, who’s your bulldog when he comes in. It’s his day to pitch and you’re excited to see him on the mound. When he has to come out of the game, there’s that fire in him that he wants to stay out there and he wants to keep going strong. You have two strong-minded guys, Q and Demp. Q believed in one thing, going with his bullpen. Demp believed he could keep going strong. At the same time, people have to understand you need that. You don’t want a passive manager, you don’t want a passive starting pitcher. Sometimes you bump heads. We have 7 1/2 months together. It’s not all love. Sometimes it’s war, even in the locker room. We treat it like a family. What happened yesterday happened, and today you move on and go from there. Maybe Ramon throws six, seven innings and doesn’t want to come out and the bullpen is ready and it happens again. At the same time, that’s something that will always happen in the game of baseball just because of the competitiveness and the fire between players and staff.

If it had been Zambrano, it would’ve been blown up and blown out of proportion. The camera stays on Carlos. They’re waiting for him to have his next blow up. Dempster’s had blow ups, but you just haven’t seen them or hear about them. I’ve had my blow ups and you never hear about them. It happens to everybody. I guess it’s a Catch-22. If it’s Dempster, he gets a pass. If it’s Carlos Zambrano, it gets talked about more because he’s Big Z.

– Marlon

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16 Comments

I agree completely & will take it a step further! Contrast Demo’s righteous anger with Giants Brian Wilson’s last week, after he was taken out of the game. Wilson was completely out of control & out of line, unlike Demp, yesterday!
Regarding Z, I agree with you! People are just waiting to see Carlos “blow up!” Last year’s “blow up” by Z was not really a big deal! He was frustrated with veterans like D-Lee, who told him to shut-up in the dugout when Carlos was trying to “rally the troops!” I saw that incident for what it was…..! Not long after that D-Lee(thankfully) was gone to the Braves!
Marlon, glad to see you back! Carrie reported that you were doing push-ups in CF at the end of last night’s game? Wish we could have seen that!! You’re a skilled, charismatic player who is a joy to watch!

Marlon
First off, glad to see you back! Love watching you play.
Second, you are exactly right! Z’ sells papers and sportscasters love talking about him. But I think Dempster is so cool and collected, you never expect that out of him. However, he is a competitor. When he gets between the lines, it’s all business…..as it should be for any professional athlete. Thank you for setting the record straight.
Good luck the rest of the way!

you are really going to say what a mlb player accepts as good as ‘baloney’? don’t you think the players know what works? the ‘blow ups’ are a result of passion and competitiveness…which is a good thing

The last three Hall of Fame Cubs players–Banks, Williams and Sandberg–were self-controlled athletes who showed their fire in their play, not in the dugout or clubhouse. All this talk of fire, where a player loses his composure and forgets that he is a professional, is baloney. The results don’t help the club but produce discord and the cultivation of prima donnas.

“Losing one’s composure” is subjective, in my humble opinion! Watching Ryne Sandberg manage the Iowa Cubs last year, his “composure” was lost quite a few times! However, in the context of a hotly contested umpire’s call & in defense of his team, its appropriate.

In this day & age, there is more intrusion into the dugout, providing more of a window on what goes on there. I’m not a fan of so many cameras & microphones on coaches, managers & players during a game, particularly in the dugout! We don’t need to see their every emotion!

good points Marlon, and I agree, things like that happen, and as long as the next hour or even the next day, it is over and forgotten, than it can be a good thing, Demp showed that he wants the ball and Q showed that he was the boss, in the past a player/manager has not worked well…loved reading your thoughts on the Iowa Cub players, sometimes I think a team mate can get a better read on a player than a scout with a stop watch can….

I will take some fire and mouthiness from Dempster anyday compared to a “dead ass team” that the Cubs seemed to be earlier this year. As much as they are losing, I still like watching them because they at least are trying. I credit Quade for not being so insecure that he loses his cool everytime one of his players runs his mouth. You know, if the pitching does straighten out and the defense stabilizes, we could have some fun the second half.

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